messymimi's meanderings

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

We almost had a crisis on our hands yesterday. Little Girl, on her way to her very first day of work, said, "Oh, and I need my Social Security Card. Do you know where it is?"

What a time to tell me, i thought, although i should have known. You can barely do anything any more without at least two forms of identification.

The first place i headed was the logical place, the filing cabinet. Nada. Her file was there, but not the requested document, nor her birth certificate. Bummer.

Thinking about it, i realized we had used both of those to register her for school, and for driver's ed, and for getting her permit, so a further search found the required document filed in her education records.

That was close -- i hate having to try to replace things like that, as i had to with Bigger Girl's Social Security Card years ago. Much easier to keep track of it to begin with, and her documents are back in her file where they belong, not among the report cards.

As for me being crazy, i have decided to go ahead and do the A to Z challenge again this year.

Yes, i post daily anyway, so why not. The problem i have is getting to five other blogs each day, besides all the ones i already try to get to. There are only so many hours in the day, and only so many of them that i want to spend online.

As for the mechanics of it, it actually only took me 20 minutes to figure out how to get the participation image/icon/whatevertheycallit onto my blog -- last year it took a lot longer. Why do you think i leave the "No Shopping on Thanksgiving" icon up all year long? If i ever took it off, i'd never figure out how to get it back. Technology is not my strong suit.

Beginning tomorrow, then, i will be traipsing through the alphabet along with many others. No particular theme, of course, because i meander too much, and too much crazy stuff goes on here.

Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade; Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade, 1146King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella sign decree ordering Jews to convert or be expelled from Spain, 1492Jews are expelled from Prague, 1745Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade, 1854Thomas P Mundy of Perth Amboy, NJ, becomes the first African American to cast a vote, 1870The Eiffel Tower, commemorating the French Revolution, opens, 1889Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft, 1903Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1909Construction begins on the RMS Titanic, 1909Construction of the RMS Titanic is completed, 1912The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands, 1917Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time, 1918The Royal Australian Air Force is formed, 1921The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada, 1949Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau, 1951In the Canadian federal election, 1958, the Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, win the largest percentage of seats in Canadian history, with 208 seats of 265, 1958The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum, 1959The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon, 1966Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit, 1970The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California, 1992Netscape releases the code base of its browser under an open-source license agreement; the project is given the code name Mozilla and is eventually spun off into the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, 1998Amid unrest in the Mideast, activists claim China has launched the largest crackdown on dissenters in recent years, 2011

Monday, March 30, 2015

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus. It's easy to participate, just post a picture that makes you say, "Awww!"

Don't forget to link up and visit other Awww Monday posts, because it's great to be able to start the week with a smile!

The duckling has grown very fast, and true to duck behavior, follows its "mother," Friend Becky, everywhere.

Duckling follows here, and so does #2 Son!

Today is:

Check for Change in Every Coin Return You Pass Day -- because someone has a sense of humor and put it on the internet

Culture and Traditions Day -- MicronesiaDoctors Day -- US (begun by Eudora Almond in 1933 because she thought her husband, Dr. Charles B. Almond, deserved recognition for his hard work; www.doctorsday.org for ideas on how to thank your doctor)

Grass Is Always Browner On The Other Side Of The Fence Day -- remember how good you have it; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

I am in Control Day -- remember Alexander Haig's words on this date in 1981? well today, if you find the phones won't stop ringing, the kids got into the glue again, the coffee maker is on the fritz, and somebody dyed the poodle purple, stand up and declare that you are in control!

Land Day Commemoration -- West Bank/Palestinian remembrance

Limited Liability Day -- because no one can be responsible for everything

Pencil Day -- the pencil with an eraser top was patented this day in 1858 by Hyman Lipman

Runic Half-Month Ewhas (Horse) begins

Seward's Day -- Alaska, US

Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day -- Trinidad and Tobago

St. Leonard Murialdo's Day (Patron of apprentices)

Take a Walk in the Park Day -- begun by someone who wanted to get out of the office

The first recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet, BC240Ketsugan, Zen teacher, performs exorcisms to free aizoji temple, 1422Henry VIII divorces Catherine of Aragon, 1533British and coalition forces march into Paris after the defeat of Napoleon, 1814Dr. Crawford Long of Georgia, US, performs the first operation with anesthesia (ether), 1842A pencil with attached eraser is patented by Hyman L Lipman of Philadelphia, 1858Alaska is purchased from Russia by US Secretary of State William Seward, for $7,200,000 (about 2 cents per acre), 1867Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, 1932Einstein announces his revised unified field theory, 1953The Yonge Street Line, the first subway in Canada, opens in Toronto, 1954President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., 1981The oldest copy of Codex Holmiensis, dating from 1280, is returned to Denmark from Sweden after 300 years, and 45,000 Inca artifacts are returned to Peru's Machu Picchu after spending 100 years at Yale University, 2011

Semana Santa -- Holy Week in Spain and Spanish speaking areas; special celebrations: Mexico -- through the country, but especially in Chiapas, with processions, costumes, and even fireworks, music, dance, and syncretic rituals Seville, Spain -- with hundreds of shuffling penitents in their hoods making the torch lit processions through the town; through Easter)

Smoke and Mirrors Day -- some sites call it "Festival of Smoke and Mirrors Day," but appropriately no one knows who started it

St. Armogastes of Africa's Day (Patron of the poor and torture victims; against poverty and torture)

St. Gladys' and St. Gwynllyw's Day (the Welsh "Bonny and Clyde", who led a life of crime before their conversion)

USA Memory Championship -- New York, NY, US ("Mental Athletes" compete for the title of National Memory Champion, and the winner goes on to the World Memory Championships)

The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded, 1549Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629, 1632Swedish colonists establish the first settlement in Delaware, 1638Ludwig von Beethoven, age 24, debuts as a pianist in Vienna, 1795Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway, 1806Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam, 1848The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab, 1849Ohio makes it illegal for children under 18 & women to work more than 10 hours a day, 1852Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867Queen Victoria presides over the opening of Albert Hall in London, 1871The Knights of Columbus are established, 1882Dr. John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in his back yard, 1886The North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement goes into effect at 03:00 local time, 1941Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, 1951NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first spaceprobe to fly by Mercury, 1974The Canada Act 1982 (U.K.) receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and the first woman to be elected in a general election as premier of a Canadian province, 1993Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members, 2004The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants, 2004Thirty-five countries and over 370 cities join Earth Hour for the first time, 2008A transistor-like transcriptor is built out of DNA and RNA molecules by American bioengineers at Stanford University, 2013

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Or confuse myself. Whatever it is supposed to be. And boy, was i confused.

Step one, get a call from The Big Boss on Thursday asking me to run errands while cleaning the house. He tells me where he will leave both his credit card so i can pay for the errands, and the gate key so i don't have to keep calling Ms. P to get her to buzz me in.

Step two, put the credit card and the gate key in my wallet while running errands. Have the workload be big enough that it carries over into Friday, with The Big Boss approving my keeping the gate key with me so i can get back in and do the last 3 loads of laundry and last errand.

Step three, get up early Friday to attend 6:30am Bible study, and be completely taken aback and thoroughly confused when i wave my wallet with the church key card at the sensor and have it turn green but not let me in. Try several doors with the same result. Wait for another member of the study to come along and open the door.

Step four, rush out of Bible study as soon as it's done so as to get to work early, get to the gate and realize, when pulling out the gate key, that the reason i couldn't get in the church earlier is that both gate key and church key work on the same principle, and the gate key was the one the church sensor was reading and not recognizing!

Step five, promise myself that i will keep that gate key, next time they give it to me, in my pocket notebook instead of my wallet.

Today is:

Children's Picture Book Day -- while i can't find a sponsor for this day, starting kids on a lifelong love of books is as good an excuse for a holiday as any

Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu -- Urasenke School of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japan (remembering the influential master in The Way of Tea)

Daylight Saving Time begins -- Gaza Strip; West Bank

Earth Hour -- 8:30pm-9:30pm, your local time; turn off your lights to take a stand against climate change

Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus, 193Viking raiders sack Paris, who leave in exchange for a huge ransom, 845The origin of the Fasli Era in India, 1556Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco, 1776Nathaniel Briggs of NH patents a washing machine, 1797Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man, 1802The US Salvation Army is officially organized, 1885Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, 1910Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv & Jaffa by Turkish authorities, 1917Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara, 1930The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal's history, 1969Operators of Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania fail to recognize that a relief valve in the primary coolant system has stuck open, leading to a partial meltdown, 1979In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths, 1994The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1965, 2005At least 1 million union members, students, and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law, 2006Australian diplomat Peter Woolcott's draft for the first-ever treaty to regulate the conventional arms trade is discussed by members of the United Nations, 2013

Friday, March 27, 2015

Feline Friday was started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

It's easy to participate. Post a picture, drawing, cartoon, or video of a cat, a silly one, cute one, doofy one, your choice. Then go to Steve's site and get the code. Paste the code under your picture, and join the link. It's that easy!

HopeCat may be asleep, but it looks like her tail is still on the alert:

HopeCat loves our bed.

HopeCat is the one that is "special" and never leaves our room because she gets lost in the house. Yes, i'm sure she was asleep here, she was snoring!

Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Viewing and Celebrations begin -- Japan (the festivities get started around now, and vary by region depending on when the trees bloom in that area over the next 6 weeks)

Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu -- Omotesenke School of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japan (remembering the influential master in The Way of Tea)

Corkscrew Day -- M.L. Byrn of New York patented "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" on this date in 1860

Daylight Saving Time begins -- Israel; Jordan; SyriaNational "Joe" Day -- no, it isn't official, but today you can make everyone call you "Joe" if you want, and call them the same; probably started by someone who had no memory for names

Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt, BC196Pope Clement V excommunicates the entire population of Venice, 1309Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida, 1513The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy, 1613The dike at Hardinxveld breaks, causing the Alblasserwaard flood, 1709Spain losses Menorca & Gibraltar, 1713John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster, precursor to the band-aid, 1848First reported sighting of the Yosemite Valley by Europeans, 1851M L Byrn patents "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew), 1860The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place, 1871Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars, 1886The first Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington, D.C., 1912The first successful blood transfusion takes place in Brussels, 1914Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, , 1916Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor, 1931Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, 1958The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage, 1964The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight. 1970Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins, 1975The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212, 1980The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours, 1981The US FDA approves Viagra, 1998HMS Scylla (F71), a decommissioned Leander class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe, 2004